PGL Masters Bucharest 2025 invites revealed

PGL has announced the full list of teams competing at the upcoming PGL Bucharest 2025 event taking place in the Romanian capital.

16 teams based on the September Valve Regional Standings (VRS) will compete for a share of a $1.25m (~£929,943) prize pool.

Notably, Aurora Gaming and Astralis are the only teams from the VRS top ten attending the Tier 1 event. The potential list of invited teams sparked debate in recent weeks due to the event’s original schedule ending on November 2nd, 2025, the day before IEM Chengdu 2025 begins.

On September 9th, PGL announced that the event will now finish on November 1st, creating a two-day gap between PGL Bucharest 2025 and IEM Chengdu 2025.

Despite the rescheduling allowing additional travel time, Astralis, HEROIC, 3DMAX, and PaiN Gaming are the only teams set to compete in both tournaments. The other teams in the top ten have opted to decline the invite.

Taking place from October 26th to November 1st, PGL Masters Bucharest 2025 will see the 16 teams competing in a best-of-three Swiss stage, with the top eight advancing to the playoffs.

A best-of-three single-elimination bracket will feature until the Grand Final, where a best-of-five will determine the eventual champion. The event will also feature a third-place decider match.

With several teams opting to decline an invitation, the event features plenty of teams that are outside of the top 32.

The PGL Bucharest Masters 2025 team list is as follows:

With invites to the StarLadder Budapest Major being distributed in early October, PGL Bucharest Masters 2025 is one of the first events that will contribute to the Intel Extreme Masters Cologne Major 2026 qualification.